[quote]I saw the BIG panel on a CBC truck. (Unit 8, out of Toronto??) On that truck they used two TD's, one cut the show, the other operated the SS and DVE. One of those two also patched video, the engineers were just for maintenance. Different world, different time.[/quote] Sounds like the CBC...they used to have a lot of redundancy in their crewing at one time. With the exception of CBC, most of the trucks from Canada are Grass Valley Kalypso or 4000 switchers. CBC's SD trucks are Sony 7350s and their new HD truck is a Kalypso. [url]http://www.cbc.radio-canada.ca/mobile/index3.html[/url] I'm a news guy too who is now getting an opportunity to train and actually TD sports. The mobile company wanted to gauge where my skill level is at. They work closely with the in-house TV production at one of the NHL arenas. So they've set me up to switch the in-house feed which has 10 cams + EVS/Tape replays on a Ross 630 with an A-51. It's busy enough with cam cutting, replays, features etc that it's almost like cutting a show for a broadcast station. The only exception being that the setup is pretty much the same everyday. They also cut their Pay-Per-View shows out of that same control room. In a few weeks, I'll be plunked in a truck with a TD beside me to jump in if I crash and burn. I do three NHL games (one for Fox) with another TD supervising then they're going to set me loose on my own. Before this I'd only TD'd basic world feeds on some smaller sporting events. It's a great change from news...you get to actually use your brain. I'm learning a lot about switchers that I previously ignored and I'm revamping the way I switch news now. (I think I'm going to start using the term "punch" instead of "switch." It sounds better.)

I too did news for many years on the Century 330. It was a great switcher. You could store set ups and attach them to any of the buttons. Status displayed the value of the adjustments (0-255) on the clip gain etc. Boy that was as far as I thought they could push the technology back then. Mid stream keyers that was married to either the A buss or B buss. Man I have fond memories of that switcher. Whew I came close to saying "those were the days"or"Back in my day..." The only thing that was tricky was having to remember, is the A bus on the air or the B buss on the air.... I could not get the rest of the TD's to go along with changing to flip flop.

Some of my colleagues tell of the time you had two rotary dials, where you faded-out a source and faded-in another one by turning both knobs simultaneously - exactly like an analogue audio desk. I have vague memories of a small CDL switcher, which was replaced (in the year I started in television) with an American Data switcher. The AD had lots of nice (for the time) features: * Chromakey was a separate key over top of the M/E. This meant you could transition behind a chromakey. M/E Luminance Key could be made to appear over the Chromakey. * Switcher output could be M/E2 (normal) or M/E1 (freeing M/E2 for another effect. ie rows did not have to cascade through M/Es). Output could also be the B-row of M/E2 (without keys and regardless of fader position). * DSK could mix from one M/E to the other. * DSK could mix to the "Preview/key" row, and used as a Cut Bus. * Separate fade to black * The first switcher I'd used that had a "preset - Take" cut button. The AD looked a lot like a Grass Valley, but less than half the price. Other studios had Grass Valley 1600s. One key per M/E, upstream M/Es had to cascade through the other M/Es, only one element could transition (either background or key, not both). One of the 1600s was used in the black and white days of TV, and had a "Colour Black" button that added or stripped colour burst from the Black generator. We also had a Ross RVS 424 (?) where every fader transition would cause transitions in the Background and two Keyers [i]unless you had a [b]hold[/b] enabled.[/i] So you would put BG-Hold if you just wanted the key to mix on, or Title-Hold if you wanted the Title Keyer to stay on. It was possible to Hold everything, so that a Fader movement caused [i]nothing[/i] to happen! But it did have a Transition preview, which was nice. Our OB vans had Ross 632 (?), which emulated the GVG Transition design. It had a fabulous "Multi-Keyer" for the DSK, which allowed 8 sources to be keyed simultaneously (sharing the same clip/gain). You could mask 8 separate areas of the screen for each of the 8 sources, and you could cross-mix keys - mix some out while mixing others in. You could tie the DSK to the M/E2 fader so the DSK would mix at the same time as a fader transition. It had a fantastic E-Mem mode where you could Learn an M/E setup as normal, but when you recalled it, it would recall to [i]the other side of the fader transition[/i] What was on the current output of the M/E was left untouched, but moving the fader would result in the background/key combination that was stored in the memory. Very advanced for its time. We upgraded one studio to a GVG-300 (no master E-Mem or E-Disk), so for the first time we could Learn effects in our Studios. Luxury! This pointed up the deficiency in the other studio, still battling with a GVG1600. We replaced the 1600 with cannibalised pieces of two Ampex Century switchers. Now we finally had memories in both the main studios. The Ampex Century had heaps of features that I'd never seen before: * Tallies flowed through from the key signals, so a DVE key would not generate a tally if the DVE was off-screen. It also meant that a chromakey where there was no "foreground" produced no tally until someone stepped in front of the camera! * "Modulation" applied to the positioner, so a wipe's position would bounce around. * A Central Display area where you could see what wipe and key sources were selected on an M/E (forerunner of the Kalypso "Status" display?) * The ability to use a vision source as a Wipe generator * M/E Copy and M/E Swap * The ability to use the main Transition as an extra keyer (by using external video fill in a video wipe border) In fact, I can see a lot of similarities between the Century and the Kalypso... A lot of learning from all these switchers came from hours of sitting and playing. There's no substitute for hands-on.

[quote="Mike Cumbo"]Rick, First off, hope you had a safe and good time this past weekend. Maybe next time we can do lunch. Second, I do think CDL made several different models, 480, 680 and even a 1080 I think. Maybe one of our brothers from up North can chime in since I saw the BIG panel on a CBC truck. (Unit 8, out of Toronto??) On that truck they used two TD's, one cut the show, the other operated the SS and DVE. One of those two also patched video, the engineers were just for maintenance. Different world, different time.[/quote] Hey Mike: Yes had a nice safe time in the DC area... and the game wasn't bad either! As far as the CDL ... I truly can't remember. All I know is we had a CDL 480 so when you said CDL 680 "you think", I thought I knew it was the 480. That was truly another lifetime ago! It's all a blur now, or is that a Kalypso/Dveous effect?? Yes lunch next time sounds good... take care, talk to you soon. Cheers.... Rick. PS: did your Caps tonight!

Rick, First off, hope you had a safe and good time this past weekend. Maybe next time we can do lunch. Second, I do think CDL made several different models, 480, 680 and even a 1080 I think. Maybe one of our brothers from up North can chime in since I saw the BIG panel on a CBC truck. (Unit 8, out of Toronto??) On that truck they used two TD's, one cut the show, the other operated the SS and DVE. One of those two also patched video, the engineers were just for maintenance. Different world, different time.

[quote="Mike Cumbo"]How did I learn... I still am learning. I started on a 200, then 1680 and a 1600 with a 300 and maybe a CDL 680 (I think) thrown in.[/quote] Mike, it was the CDL 480 ..... I remember that because we had one and all the directors were afraid of it at our station in Miami. They were more comfortable with the Vital switcher with a Quantel DVE they were used to. When WPLG purchased the CDL, I was the only one along with one of our other directors that wanted to use it and learn the newer technology. The only thing with that switcher was the buttons were very small and there was no "memory state" or emems as we know them. I remember the keys, wipe patterns and borders being very clean. I also loved that you could soften wipe borders. It was a good learning experience using it and it made the transition into the GV300 much easier epsecially with the Background/Key transition buttons which were adpated by GV and now every other manufacturer.

How did I learn... I still am learning. I started on a 200, then 1680 and a 1600 with a 300 and maybe a CDL 680 (I think) thrown in. Then a 3000-2 and then "normal" 3000's and everything from that point on. The first version of Kalypso software I knew was I think 1.89 and at that point the box was a BIG 1680 with lots of pretty lights. Like Brad, as new versions and features were added it was painless. As for the manual, I printed one, forget for what version, brought it a baseball game and realized that the truck had a software version that was something like two versions newer then my manual. I may have one on the laptop but I find having the software on my PC lets me look at things without having to be on a switcher. One thing, I have seen a Grass 3000, Kalypso Classic, Kalypso Due (HD), Sony 7350, Sony 8000 this past MLB season either in Baltimore or DC. If you approach a crewer and say that "I can cut a great game, but only on a Model XXX switcher" you may not get many calls. You mention MASN and CSN, which means you are somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic or maybe parts of PA.

For me, learning the Kalypso began with identifying the similarities with the GVG-300. Then adding two extra keyers. We started when the software was (I think) version 2, so many features got added gradually, so the learning curve was gentle. I spent a lot of time with a manual, then sitting in front of the panel trying things out, experimenting. I created Stills that were a screenfull of "Key1", "Key2", "BG-A", "Util-1" etc. Then when I was experimenting, I could see when a bus was contributing to the output. I sat down with (for example) the Matte subpanel, and did a wash between two colours for every matte (Key fill, Key Pst Patt Border, Wipe Border etc), and included Utility Rows as a Matte Source, as well as trying different Wash Sources. Since the Utility Rows have multiple functions, I tried to combine those functions to see what would happen when there was a "conflict", for example doing a "Utility Video in Wipe Border" on the Secondary Partition. I also disovered some "bugs" this way. (By "bugs" I mean things that don't work as you would expect them to, not necessarily "faults". For example, you can't do a Utility Fill of a Matte for a keyer's Matte Fill.) Often I would design problems in my head, so that when I sat in front of the Kalypso, I had a goal. Sometimes I would see on Editsuite.com a question designed for a different switcher, and ask myself "How would I do that on a Kalypso?" When I train others, I pay particular attention to the behaviour of various kinds of buttons - those that you push-on/push-off, those that you can push all at the same time, those that you push once to achieve a result etc. I indicate areas where the silk-screen printing "groups" buttons together. I start from the familiar, introduce a slight variation, and then set exercises to practice. The manuals are helpful, but at times assume you already know what they're saying. Persevere with them. Anytime I come across a feature, I ask myself "How can I make use of that?" Even if the answer is not very practical, the act of thinking about the issue is helpful in reinforcing your knowledge. Consume these posts! You can learn a lot from the wisdom - and mistakes! - of others. And even if the post is not directly applicable to yourself, try to make some connection, or set yourself the task of implementing the idea, so that if you were ever asked for the thing, you've already gone through the process. The "old" editsuite.com forum has lots of questions and answers from when we were all beginners, and you can perform searches using keywords such as "Double Take" or "Chromakey". And as you've correctly identified, sitting and observing a more experienced person is immensely valuable. You can ask them why they've done things [i]that[/i] way, when there's another way it could be done. (Often the answer is "personal preference".) I hope this belated answer helps you to master your Kalypso. Happy Switching! brad

Sorry about the lack of a reply. I figured someone from your area of the country mighth want to field that one. If you want to TD sports, find out who the crewers are in your area. If they are in the position of needing TD's they will make sure they get you on a truck to see what goes on. Whether someone is willing to share their knowledge is strictly based on their personality. Some guys see not sharing info as job protection. Some just don't like to teach. I find that almost anyone likes to share what they know if you ask nicely and at a time when they aren't under a time crunch. I can think of 10 to 15 guys that have helped me along as a TD. Learning the stuff you need to know to do sports is just doing it over and over. Reps make you stronger no matter what the discipline. While you have the Kalypso wher you are working, search the Grass forum for topics related to sports and then get on the desk and explore menus and experiment. There is plenty to pick up from other TD's but a good TD knows how to train theirself. Throw your name out here and let us know what you want to know. I think this forum is proof that people are willing to help. Happy Punching! Scott

No one? Thanks anyway.